Improvement in ordnance



B. T. BABBITT.

Muzzle-loading Ordnance.

- Patented Feb. 5, 1861.

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Unrrnn STATES PATENT OF ICE.

BENJAMIN T. BABBITT, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.-

IMPROVEMENT IN ORDNANCE.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 31,29l, dated February 5, 1861.

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, BENJAMIN T. BABBITT, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Ordnance and Fire-Arms; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification.

The object of my invention is to prevent the overheating of ordnance or fire-arms by rapidly-repeated firing; and to this end my. invention consists in the employmentof a tube or casing surrounding the barrel in such manner that there is formed around the latter, between it and the said tube or casing, an annular passage, through which a violent and copious rush of air is produced, in aforward direction, by the discharge of the piece, such rush of air having the effect of cooling the barrel in some degree after every discharge.

Figure 1 in the drawings is a side view of a cannon with my invention applied. Fig. 2 exhibits a longitudinal section of the tube or casing and a side view of the cannon. Fig. 3 is a transverse section in the plane indicated by the line a a in Fig. 1. Fig. 4: is a transverse section of the same in the plane indicated by the line b b in Fig. 2.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several figures.

A is the body or barrel of the gun. B is the surrounding tube or casing, made of wrought or cast iron, of a length to extend from the breech to a little in front of the muzzle, and of an internal diameter larger than the exterior of the body or barrel A. It is arranged eccentrically the rear portion of the tube in place eoncentrio with the body or barrel; and the front part of the tube has projections f f from its interior, to fit against the body or barrel for the same purpose. At each discharge of the gun a partial vacuum is suddenly formed in front of the muzzle by the sudden expansion 'of the gases resulting from the explosion of the charge, and a violent and copious rush of cool air takes place in a forward direction through the annular space 9 5/, between the tube and body or barrel, to fill the said vacuum, and also to fill the vacuum that is left Within the barrelafter the gas has left it; and this rush of air, continued for several seconds, has the effect of cooling the body or barrel in a very considerable degree.

What I claim as my invention,.and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

The employment of a tube or casing, B, surrounding the body or barrel of a piece of ordnance or fire-arm, substantially as and for the purpose herein specified B. T. BABBITT. Witnesses: M. M. LIVINGSTON,

G. W. OOUTAN. 

